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Monday, December 16, 2013

A Proud Moment for Indian Health Science

The birth of a baby brings joy to the parents and whole
family and this joy can be doubled by the arrival of twins. On rare occasions
this very joy can turn to be a nightmare for the doctors and parents when they
face great challenge to keep the baby or babies alive. This happens more in
case of Siamese twins named after the famous brothers, Chang Bunker and Eng
Bunker of Siam, who travelled with P.T. Barnum’s circus. Medically known as
conjoined twins; these babies are attached to each other and at times share a
single vital organ. Fortunately, this phenomenon does not occur too often. The
birth of conjoined twins is seen as rare as once in every 200,000 live births,
moreover their survival rate is also very low. Females are known to have higher
survival rate compared to their male counterparts. Nearly 40-60 of conjoined
twins are stillborn, and even among those who are born alive only 35% make it
past day one. Even the 5-25 percent of twins who survive face many challenges
throughout their lives. Fortunately, today medical science has progressed
enough to separate the conjoined twins successfully to give them a chance to
lead normal lives. I know the benefits of modern health care as I Owe 17 Years of My Life to Healthcare…

One of the rare occurrences among conjoined twins is the
birth of pygopagus twins, i.e. babies who are joined at the buttocks. So far
medical science has recorded just 30 live births of pygopagus twins, of which
26 were females and just 4 males.

Ericana and Eludi are one of those rare male conjoined
twins whose mother has approached Apollo Hospitals seeking the rare surgery
which can give her boys normal life. You can imagine the shock and surprise of
doctors and the mother from a small village of Tanzania when they found the
male twins she gave birth through a tough ‘C’ section were joined at their
backs. The ordeal of the mother to save her boys began then. First she was sent
to the Mohimbili Hospital in the capital Dar es Salaam by ambulance. It took all
of the three days to make this journey with the newborns and even at Mohimbili the
fate of the twins could not be decided. The doctors were waiting for the advice
of health officials regarding further action. This is when Apollo Hospitals
Chennai stepped in.

Apollo Hospitals Chennai is closely associated with the
Tanzanian government by the Save a Childs Heart Initiative (SACHI). Due to
their past history of volunteering to save the life of children, the conjoined
twins were shifted to Apollo Children’s Hospital in Chennai after 4 ½ months. The
arrival of the babies was followed by many tests and scans which revealed that the
babies were joined at the tail end of the spines and shared a single anus and
rectum. They were also found to have a single phallus and urinary passage.
Today, after 5 months, the 9 month old babies weigh 16 kg.

In a great medical breakthrough surgery which will last for
nearly 14-16 hours, which is scheduled on 16th of December, a team
of 20 doctors will Surgical Separation of Pygopagus twins at Apollo
Children’s Hospital, Vanagaram. The team of doctors from different specialties
of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, pediatric surgery and pediatric urology will attempt
the separation. The services of Dr. Edward Kiely – Pediatric Surgeon and Dr. Richard
Howard – Anesthesiologist both from Great Ormond Street Hospital in London have
been sought to guide and help in the safe separation. The surgery is going to
be the first of its kind in India. The greatest challenge faced by the doctors
is to safely separate the fused phallus to give both the babies healthy
functional penis. The delicate procedure will demand utter precision and
accuracy from the steady of the experts.

In preparation of the surgery doctors at the Apollo
Hospitals have placed flaps in the back, buttocks and thighs of the twins so
that skin flaps can be rotated to cover the large defects, which will be left
after separation. The nursing staff have grown to love the babies and adopted
them as their own. In the past 5 months they have showered unconditional love
on the babies who they have nicknamed ‘Ammukutty’ and ‘Chellakutty’. Responding
to the love, the babies have learned to say Thatha’ and ‘Athai’, whereas their mother
has picked up a bit of Tamil as well.

Let us spare some time to send good wishes and prayers for
safe separation of these babies, who deserve every chance to live a normal
healthy life. Do not forget to send them your prayers today, 16th of December when the surgery is going on.
Update : After a gruelling 12 hours, Apollo Hospitals surgeons separated nine-month-old Tanzanian conjoined twins Ericana and Eludi on Monday at Apollo Speciality Hospital, Vanagaram, According to the surgeons the babies are showing good signs.